One nation, one ration card policy, subsidised food for migrant workers anywhere in the country

With Covid-19 situation in the background has paralysed the life of a common man and the migrant workers are the ones getting most affected due to this, to avoid further problems in the life of migrant workers, the finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman has devised a new policy called “One Nation, One Ration Card’ and under this policy, the migrant workers will now get subsided ration anywhere in India with the single ration card.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the ‘One Nation One Ration’ card will be available for all by March 2021. The new development will bring a lot of relief into the life to poor migrants who had to suffer due to continuous migration in a search of work.

Through this card, migrant workers can access any Public Distribution Shop in any state, any country.Promising 100% national portability by March 2021, Sitharaman said that this initiative is a part of the PM’s technology-driven reforms.

According to Ms Sitaraman, ‘One Nation One Ration’ card will be available for all by March 2021. Through this card, migrant workers can access any Public Distribution Shop in any state, any country. This will enable national portability of ration card.

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Due to the Coronavirus crises, thousands of migrants have lost their jobs, they had no food and shelter and had to walk miles to get access to food. “Finding themselves suddenly out of jobs, these workers with barely any access to food have been travelling by foot to leave their state of work to go home.”

According to the finance minister, Now, the government’s One Nation One Ration card will help migrant workers from different states across the country. Intra-state portability has been introduced in over 20 states.

“This will help 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states covering 83% of the PDS population by August 2020,” said Sitharaman. Promising 100% national portability by March 2021, Sitharaman said that this initiative is a part of the PM’s technology-driven reforms. All the states will complete fair price shops automation by March 2021.

The Finance Minister also promised free food grain supply to migrants for two months. “About 8 crore migrants will benefit from this and ₹3500 crores will be spent on this intervention over 2 months,” she said.

Further, the migrants who don’t have either the National Food Security Act card or any state card will get 5KG of grains per person and 1KG gram per family per month for two months, said the FM.

“This system enables the migratory ration cardholders/beneficiaries to lift their entitled food grains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice in the country by using their existing/same ration card issued in their home State/UT after biometric/Aadhaar authentication on electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) devices installed at the FPSs. ”

The new system will also reduce the possibility of corruption in the rationing sector and it will remove the dependency on one particular fair price shop which was creating a monopoly and abuse of the migrant workers.